A brief delay added before a microprocessor executes an instruction, to allow time for slower memory chips or external devices to respond. A wait states may be one or more of the computer's clock cycles or may be timed differently. One wait state on each access of memory can make the processor up to 20% slower. With no wait state (called zero wait state) the processor will run faster.

A clock cycle during which no instructions are executed because the processor is waiting for data from a device or from memory. Static RAM chips and paged-mode RAM chips are becoming popular becaus ... more